


a new hobby

by pipecleanerFlowers



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: AU Swap, Female Protagonist, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-08
Updated: 2015-10-08
Packaged: 2018-04-25 09:17:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4954825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pipecleanerFlowers/pseuds/pipecleanerFlowers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Akari couldn't believe this.</p><p>A translucent blue alien is trying to convince <i>her</i> to duel.</p><p>(written for sanchoyo on tumblr!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	a new hobby

**Author's Note:**

> This was an AU Swap for sanchoyo on tumblr and it is DISGUSTINGLY LATE and I am sooooo sorry omg I hope you enjoy!!

Akari couldn't believe this.

A translucent blue alien is trying to convince _her_ to duel.

Excuse Akari, but duelling is for kids who crave adrenaline rushes and try-hards who can't get a real job so they rely on tournament money they Can't Win.

She turns the black card in her hand, over and over again, and frowns under the light of her computer screens that almost manage to drown out Astral’s presence with their blue glow.

“How else can I gain back my memories if you don’t duel?”

Except not his voice, apparently. Darn.

When this thing appeared out of nowhere, she’d been forced into her very first duel since high school, with her outdated deck and failing memory of its main engine. It was awful, she had no strategy, and somehow with the alien’s help she’d managed to pull off a win.

But…

“The Numbers that have been appearing are your memories?” she asks, not convinced. “And it’s my job to collect them for you? What a joke. I don’t duel, Astral. You picked the wrong girl.”

Astral frowns, floating down beside her. “Then how am I supposed to know what my purpose is?”

\+ + + + +

Akari frowns, the end of her pencil chewed into oblivion as she sticks it between her teeth again. Another number, another reason for this weirdo alien to follow her around. The sun fades into the horizon as she crosses the bridge toward her brother’s school, where the most recent incident has appeared on her radars.

“I still can’t believe you’re asking me to duel for you,” Akari grits out, pushing her sunglasses up her nose as she swerves onto the ramp, the exit nearest to where they need to be. “These Numbers of yours better not be putting Yuuma in any danger or I’ll find a way to make you solid and kick your ass”

“If you stopped being so averse to changing up the structure of your deck--”

“As if I’m spending my hard-earned money on some card game,” she says, waving her hand flippantly. “It’s a dangerous hobby that I’d rather have nothing to do with.”

Akari can see Astral frown as he hovers in the passenger seat. “Then how can I regain all my memories?”

“You could always live with your amnesia and figure out a new life.”

Akari still remembers the way her hands trembled in the first duel, against Leviath Dragon, the first number to appear. It was some kid at the mall who just happened to pick the card off the ground. Everything went to hell after that. And before it could get any worse, Astral appeared telling her to duel.

Like she ever _duelled_.

There’s a deck in her camera case, some old outdated thing she hasn’t really touched since high school. Since Charlie up and ditched her on the street… but he’s gone now so hell if he matters anymore.

“Well, whatever,” Akari finally says as she pulls into Yuuma’s school. “Might as well check it out. Might get a good article out of it.”

“Thank you.”

At least the alien knew manners.

\+ + + + +

It’s been so long since Akari’s walked these halls, and it’s eerie how she still knows her way around almost a decade later. The place has barely changed, except for the new coat of paint on the walls and the upgrades to the duelling grounds.

“Where’s the Number?” Astral asks, floating alongside her, and she grimaces.

“Down there,” Akari says, gesturing down toward the grounds, eyes scanning to see if Yuuma’s there. She prays he’s not. She prays he isn’t disobeying her again.

They cross the bridge and Akari hooks her D-Gazer around her ear, linking it onto the grounds. She wrenches open the door to the stairs leading down to them, hurries off, and doesn’t check to see if Astral’s still there. It’s only when they’re on the grounds, bursting with chunks of digitized concrete and the scent of physical binary formatting, that she remembers despising this part of the school.

“Remember, this is a battlefield,” she mutters to Astral, before taking a breath and storming into the chaos.

She still can’t see what Yuuma sees. It’s nothing but trouble, there’s nothing glittering or amazing about it.

“Of course,” Astral says, but it’s an echo in her ears as the Astronomy tower cracks and falls in the distance.

It takes a moment, but her D-Pad is beeping insistently at her and Akari finally sees it: the Number. Duelling against a girl who looks far too familiar.

“For fuck’s sake…” she grumbles before picking up the pace. “Astral, what’s the plan? How do I battle royale?”

“For a non-duelist, you’re sure up to date on the terms,” Astral observes.

“In a city full of wannabe pros, who wouldn’t be?”

Long violet hair and blue bangs, definitely the same girl. The one who picked up Leviath Dragon. The first duel Akari played since Charlie left.

She frowns, clamping the D-Pad over her wrist. She never uses it as a disk, and it feels awkward and heavy when she activates its duel mode, but…

“ _Battle Royal, Engaged._ ”

“What the fuck are you interrupting for, I’m about to--” the girl starts, whipping around, and her hair flips behind her.

“Only Numbers can beat Numbers, kid,” Akari mutters, trying not to fumble as she pulls out five cards. “And you don’t have a Number.”

“Ugh, as if I can’t--”

“You can’t,” Akari deadpans. “Okay, Astral, what do I do to finish this quickly?”

“My name isn’t Astral--”

“Does it look like I’m talking to you?” Akari asks, looking the girl up and down again. Jeez. Kids shouldn’t get involved in this stuff.

\+ + + + +

They win, of course, and the girl introduces herself as Queen, which is absolutely ridiculous. Akari frowns at the hand she sticks out at her.

“So what’s the deal with the whole talking to yourself thing?” Queen asks as their opponent lies on the ground in a painful writhing mess and the school’s nurses rush around him.

“Nothing,” Akari says quickly.

Queen smirks. “Imaginary friend? Aren’t you too old for that?”

Akari hopes she never has to deal with this girl ever again.

\+ + + + +

The world hates her. It’s the only explanation.

Kamishiro Rio, alias Queen, was the latest of the slew of kids vying for a championship spot in a local tournament Akari was assigned to take on. When her editor saw her deckbuilding in her office, there was no getting out of it.

And she’s hoped she’d never have to do coverage on duels…

“Think of it as a learning experience,” Astral tells her as she straddles her motorcycle and fastens her helmet.

“Whatever.”

\+ + + + +

Yuuma’s in the tournament. If not for the fact that Akari needs to be on top of getting the best interview spot in the arena, she would’ve dragged him out of this place by the ear by now.

But money talks and her job is starting to feel like hell.

“Is your imaginary friend here too?”

Akari fights to urge to smack a bitch. “Just me and my camera today, Kamishiro Rio.”

“Wha--!? How did you--”

“Yeah,” Akari interrupts, “so anyway, I’m the one writing the article on you, since you’re favoured to win,” Akari explains shortly, twirling a pen between her fingers and sitting down on the couch in the cozy, empty box-seats she’d found to hold this interview. “Wanna sit down too or do you prefer lording over the people who could make your public life a living hell?”

Kamishiro Rio scowls at her, glossy pink lips downturned as she throws her hair over her shoulder and crosses her arms. “You _wouldn’t_.”

“I could, and I do happen to have the power to do so.”

Astral tuts at her from his seat in midair, but Akari doesn’t really care if she is being childish. Queen Kamishiro Rio has been a pain in the ass ever since Astral appeared, and the only way to tame rich brats is to threaten their public standing.

And Akari’s being honest when she says that’s the only advantage she’s got on her.

. “Fine, whatever.” Rio sits down, pulling at the hem of her very short skirt as she crosses her legs. “Where do you want to start?”

“You’re a favourite in this tournament. Wanna tell us why?”

“Because I’m the best, obviously,” Rio says with a confident smirk. “I’m going to be the valedictorian for my year, my grades are at the top of my class, and my duel skills are second to none in this little local tournament. No one’s a match for me.”

“Ah, okay…” Akari uncaps her pen with her teeth and begins writing: “Kamishiro… Rio… is a… cocky… overachiever…”

“ _What?_ ”

Astral scolds her, but it falls on deaf ears.

\+ + + + +

Numbers keep falling, people keep picking them up. It’s torture, especially when it’s three in the morning and Astral feels a stir in the city and coaxes her up and onto her motorcycle to check it out. A month into their arrangement, she’s stopped worrying about getting dressed at night, showing up to the scenes in her pajamas and letting Astral autopilot her duels.

“You look like a total scrub.”

“And we have got to stop meeting like this, _Queen_.” On Akari’s lips, it sounds like an insult rather than praise, and Rio bristles.

Akari’s duel disk is set, heavy on her arm, but she’s more used to it than she was a month ago and that’s a plus. The Number that she and Astral had been tracking was long gone. On the other side of the city, in fact, if her D-Pad wasn’t lying to her.

“The media still doesn’t know that I’ve beaten you in a duel before. Should I write an article mentioning that little tidbit after you take the trophy?”

“That was a fluke and you know it, you amateur.”

Akari shrugs, because duel-related insults don’t bother her when she’s never cared about duels in the first place (but maybe she cares a bit too much about knocking Rio a peg down).

“I’ll even prove it to you, since you’re all set to go,” Rio adds, clamping her own disk over her wrist.

Akari wants to say that’s unnecessary because she really, really doesn’t care, but she’s already pulling out five cards and Astral is already muttering on about how she might want to set up her field during her turn.

Knocking Rio a peg down it is.

(“We better win, Astral.”

“With me by your side, I’m not sure it’s possible to lose.”)


End file.
